Donuts & Redemption
by 8BonnieBlue8
Summary: AU Season 3. What if Buffy and the others had tried harder to save Faith what would have happened? And what will the gang's reaction be when they find out one too many of the dark slayer's secrets? Pairing: Xander/Faith
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Everything Buffy and Angel belong to Joss Whendon and everybody else who worked on them. I only own Hope.

A/N: OK, so this is set in an AU season 3 just after Faith tries on the dress in Graduation Part 1. Only difference being that Graduation is still months away which I had to do for the story and Angel never broke up with Buffy 'cause I need him to stay in town for this story. The main pairings are: Xander/Faith (eventually), Willow/Oz and Buffy/Angel. I'll try and update as much as I can but it'll be hard because I'm doing another story and my school seems to be particularly fond of homework. Anyway, hope you enjoy and please review.

Faith shivered in the cold, bringing her leather jacket tighter around her. She was beginning to think that Sunnydale had been abandoned due to the lack of life or un-life around and someone had conveniently forgotten to mention it to her. Actually, that would be kinda cool; having a whole town just to herself. That is unless it was actually under attack from aliens or something and once again someone had conveniently forgotten to mention it to her. That wouldn't be so fun.

She'd been thinking about heading to the Bronze but odds were B and her little Scooby gang would be there and she wasn't exactly keen on running into them. She really didn't want to come to blows with them tonight and judging by the last time they had met that's what would happen. Well, she'd come to blows with B anyway. Nope, tonight was purely about chilling out, get some dancing in, flirt with a couple of guys, maybe dust a few vamps – just for fun, not to save any innocents or nothing. Nope, no innocent saving here, that was B's gig.

The brunette stopped in her tracks at the sound of a scream. For a moment she debated about whether to keep going; sure, she wanted to dust a few vamps but not save anyone. 'sides if someone was in danger than odds were B and her boy-toy wouldn't be far away. But at the sound of another scream Faith found herself no longer debating but running in the direction of the sound.

Wrenching a stake out of her pocket she rounded an alley corner. The brunette came to a screeching halt at the sight of a lanky looking vampire holding a girl that was probably only six with chestnut coloured locks tight against his front. The vamps fangs were imbedded in the girl's neck and Faith could see a faint trail of blood running down onto her pink dress. Without a second's pause the slayer ran forward, grabbing the back of the guy's shirt and tearing him off the kid who whimpered and fell to the ground. Faith ignored the urge to check on her and swung her leg sharply around hitting the vamp on the head and knocking him to the ground. In a flash the stake was imbedded in his heart and he had turned to dust.

Faith smiled in satisfaction before turning to face the girl who was lying flat on her back, hand pressed against her neck.

"You OK kid?" she asked, helping her up.

She nodded breathlessly. "You-You saved me."

"Uh, yeah," Faith replied hesitantly, busying herself with pocketing the stake.

Before Faith could stop her the girl had her in a bone-crushing hug. At first the slayer stiffened, wanting very much to throw the girl off, but after a while she melted into the hug and gave the girl a 

comforting pat on the back. After about a minute they pulled back and she crouched down in front of her.

"What's your name kid?"

"Hope. What's yours?"

An image flashed in Faith's mind and she bit back a wave of nausea when she saw a fifteen year old girl with dark brown eyes and matching hair smiling back at her. Faith blinked, pushing it back. _No point go there, Faith_, she told herself.

"Faith."

"Like in the bible?" she asked, smiling despite the obvious pain the wound was causing her.

Faith blinked, _OK, not what I was expecting. _

"My names from the bible; Faith, Hope and Charity," Hope said before wincing in pain.

The slayer could see the beginning of tears in the child's eyes and desperately searched for a way to distract her.

"You into the bible, kid?"She asked, forcing a smile.

Hope seemed to think about it for a moment. "It has its moments."

"I bet it does."

The girl reached out a petite hand and cupped it around one of Faith's locks. "Are you an angel?"

Faith blinked, stunned at the question. How could anyone confuse her – _her!_ – with and angel. Hell, she killed people; she didn't save them, if that's what angels did. Is that what angels did? Anyhow if any slayer was an angel then it was certainly B, she even had the hair for it.

"What makes you say that?" She asked cautiously, unable to think of anything else to say.

Hope continued to play with her hair. "You saved me from the monster," she said as if it were perfect logic.

Right, perfect logic.

Yep, right up there with dancing hippos in tutus.

"Where's your parents?" she asked, for lack of anything better to say.

Hope shook her head before letting out a cry at the pain the motion caused. Faith resisted the urge to curse and picked the little girl up.

"Right, well, we'll figure that out later. Right now we gotta fix you up."

She was pretty sure the hospital was only a few blocks down they'd be there in no time.

...

Angel watched, hidden from behind the wall as Faith carried the girl away. To be quite honest he didn't know what to think of what he'd just seen and heard. Well, other than to check himself into the nearest psyche ward 'cause there was no way that had just happened and it was all clearly just some messed up hallucination. In fact, it was quite possible he was dreaming. To test this theory he gave his arm a rather good pinch. _OW!_ _OK, not a dream_. He rubbed the sore spot on his arm, _Definitely not a dream_.

Faith – _evil_ Faith! – had just saved someone, and then hugged them as well! How was that normal? So yeah, definitely a hallucination.

Angel glanced worriedly at the two disappearing forms. Still, it was probably a good idea to follow them just in case it wasn't a hallucination. After all, Faith may still hurt her 'cause with Faith you never could know.

...

Faith sat beside Hope in the waiting room, impatiently kicking her legs back a forth. She hated hospitals. She hadn't been in them much but in those times she had been they had left a far from good impression for what they were about. She wrinkled her nose, sure people were healed here, but that still didn't mean everyone was.

Once when she'd had to go and slay a vampire in a morgue she'd wondered how people could handle working there. Surrounded by all that death. But then she'd remembered her trips to the hospital and if people could work there then they could most certainly work in a morgue. 'Cause although a morgue had dead people in it, it didn't have to deal with any living people. Well, unless you count those that came in to see their diseased loved ones which, she'd grant, could be a bitch. But at a hospital you had so many live people suffering, so many that were in so much pain that the thought of even visiting one was almost nauseating. Even now she could feel the pain and despair peeling off the walls like cracked paint. It was unbearable.

Every inch of her was tensed to run, there was just one problem. The doctors had been tied down with other emergencies and hadn't been able to tend to Hope yet and Faith didn't exactly want to leave her here alone, well, that and the fact that the kid's hand seemed to be surgically attached to her own with absolutely no chance of removal. Seriously, she'd tried.

With a sigh she shifted uncomfortably, willing a doctor to magically appear. They were on a Hellmouth after all, could happen. She was even considering fixing the girl up herself but then again she didn't exactly have a medical degree. Hell, she didn't even have something resembling a forged one.

Faith was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of approaching footsteps. She looked up to see a partially bald man in scrubs making his way towards them.

"I'm ready for you now," he said with a warm smile.

_Finally_.

...

"Will I have a scar?" Hope asked as the doctor put some padding on her wound, sounding oddly thrilled by the idea. Then again, some kids are like that, like to show off scars to their friends, see who has the most exciting story to tell.

Faith never told the story behind her scars whilst she was at school, or her bruises.

"There's a good chance that you will," the doctor – Dr White – told her. "I still can't see how you could get such an injury. It's almost as if you fell on a barbeque fork."

Hope and Faith shared a smile at his ignorance but didn't say anything. As it turned out the kid was smarter than she looked in the sense of not telling people she was bitten by a vampire in order not to look crazy. Faith had come up with a story about finding Hope on the streets the way she was and Hope had put in her part about falling on a barbed wire fence (both lies). On that note her parents had been contacted and were now on their way over. Until then, the slayer was stuck with babysitting duty.

"There you go, you're goo to go," Dr White announced, smile firmly in place.

Hope also smiled. "Thanks." Without waiting for a reply she grabbed Faith's hand and dragged the helpless slayer back out into the waiting room.

Faith nearly screamed when she was once again forced to wait in the hospital, memories flooding her mind like an unwanted plague of ants. She'd fight back one only to find another.

"_We've got Class III Haemorrhage."_

"_How old did you say she was?"_

"_Seven . . . Poor girl."_

Faith was brought out of the memory by the sound of Hope's voice.

"Are you OK, angel?"

The brunette smiled weakly, over time she'd gotten used to the name. "Yeah, just not a big fan of hospitals is all. How are you doing?"

"Well, the tablets they gave me have taken away most of the pain, although my neck feels real weird," she replied, screwing up her face in concentration.

The slayer nodded, happy for the distraction. "Your parents should be here soon."

Hope suddenly pouted. "But that means you'll be going then?"

Faith nodded slowly. "Yeah, it does."

"Will you visit me?"

The slayer bit her lip as she looked into the young girl's pleading eyes. "I'll tell you what. I'll give you my phone number and then if you ever want to talk to me or somethin' you can just ring me up, 'K?"

"OK," she replied, suddenly beaming.

Faith smiled too, unable to shake the warmth she felt at the idea of someone enjoying her company so much and grabbed a pen and paper off the table beside her chair. Quickly scribbling down her number she handed the paper to Hope who took it cheerily.

Her attention was suddenly drawn to a middle-aged couple making their way down the hospital hallway, looks of concern clear across their faces.

"Your parents?" Faith asked.

Hope nodded and sprang to her feet in preparation for running towards them. But, just as she was about to take off, she seemed to suddenly remember Faith and without a moment's hesitation pulled the slayer into a hug. This time the brunette didn't stiffen at the contact and instead returned the embrace warmly.

"Bye angel," she whispered into the older girl's shoulder.

"See yah, kid."

Pulling back, Hope smiled radiantly at her before spinning around and running towards her parents.

"Mommy, Daddy!"

Faith watched as the man scooped the girl up into his arms and kissed her on the forehead. Jealously gnawed at her insides and she quickly climbed to her feet. Now more than ever she wanted to be free of the place known as Sunnydale Hospital. In fact, being rid of Sunnyhell was an even more appealing thought, not that she'd act on it.

...

Faith sighed in relief as the hospital doors swung shut behind her and she found herself out in the cool refreshing air. It was a blessing to be free of the smell of blood that had hung so thickly in the air due to her slayer senses.

"Taking up my name are you now, Faith?"

She resisted the urge to flinch in surprise and instead calmly turned around to face the vampire. He leant against the hospital wall and Faith was surprised she hadn't seen him earlier. Due to his vampire hearing and extreme stealth he'd been able to overhear most of the conversation between Faith and Hope.

"What can I say?" Faith spread her arms wide and grinned. "I always was considered an angel. Or was that a she-devil, never could tell the two apart?"

Angel sneered. "I think most people would go with the latter but, hey, what do I know?"

"Well, if it was up to me I'd say nothing. But there's probably some blonde girl running around out there ready to contradict and I'm really not in the mood for a fight," Faith returned with a false smile.

Angel raised an eyebrow. "That's new."

Faith shrugged. "Not permanent. Just don't wanna get inta a fight tonight."

The vampire's expression suddenly turned serious, all traces of mocking gone. "Why help her, Faith?"

The brunette cocked her head to the side, wondering how best to answer. Eventually she decided on the truth, well, most of it anyway. "She reminded me of someone," she said, her grin just as false as her grandmother's teeth, at least from what she can remember of that one time she saw her.

"And who would that be, Faith?" Angel asked his nose twitching slightly as he absentmindedly smelled the air. There was something there, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Whatever it was it was emanating from the brunette slayer in front of him.

"No-one you know," she replied, resisting the strong urge to punch his face in. It was unsurprisingly difficult.

Angel was hardly paying attention, _What was that smell_? He looked closely at her, trying desperately to decipher the scent. When he had he almost wished he hadn't. The vampire's eyes widened comically and it didn't take Faith long to figure out what he was thinking.

"Fucking vampire senses," she muttered angrily, preparing to leave. She knew there was a reason she hadn't wanted to run into him or the others earlier.

Angel, recovering quickly, reached out and grabbed the slayers arm, swinging her around to face him. She snarled angrily and tried to squirm out of his grip.

"LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARD!"

He frowned, hoping that no-one could hear their little fight though he doubted that was a possibility. He held her still, arms at her side and leant in so close that she could feel his cool breath on her face.

"You can't do this on your own, Faith. You need help," he hissed, trying to convey the urgency of the situation.

It didn't work; she continued to struggle, driven by rage.

"No, see, that's where you're wrong. I don't need your help, I don't need anybody's. I can take care of myself, so let go of me!"

Angel scowled at her stubbornness. "You're a child, Faith. You may not want our help but you sure as hell need it!"

Faith's struggles suddenly came to a stop and for a second the vampire thought he may have gotten through to her. She looked up at him her blank face barely concealing the rage behind it.

"We'll see," and then in a lightning fast move she struck out her heel, hitting him wear it hurts.

Angel immediately dropped her, falling to the ground in pain and by the time he pulled himself together and looked up, she was already gone. Climbing to his feet he let out a sigh, that girl was going to be the death of him, he just knew it.

For about ten minutes he stood, debating whether or not to go after her and if he did what would he do when he found her. Get his ass kicked again? That would be enjoyable. Still, he had to try. She may not want his help but she was sure as hell going to get it.

...

"STUPID FUCKING VAMPIRE!" Faith screamed in a fit of rage, kicking the trashcan to her left so it rebounded off the wall with a crash, its contents spilling out everywhere.

The brunette payed it no mind as turned to take her anger out on the wall next. Her fist collided with it in full force, the pain making her anger ebb slightly, but not completely. Screw what she thought earlier about not wanting to get into a fight, now she was begging for one.

As if on cue several albino-looking demons rounded the alley corner. She smirked.

"Oh, that is just too good."

...

Angel sniffed the air and frowned, he'd been following Faith's scent for the past nine minutes and now there was a trace of blood in the air. Not a lot of it but still blood. His frown deepened as he turned down an alley and was met by the sight of Faith's limp form sprawled across the filthy concrete. Two colourless demons towered over her their comrades' still forms scattered throughout the alley. The slayer had obviously taken out most of them.

The vampire was suddenly feeling very relieved at the fact that he'd had the sense to pack a sword with him, in a town like Sunnydale there never was such a thing as overly prepared. In a flourish he removed the sword from behind his coat and swung it around in a sharp arc just as Demon Number 1 came charging at him. Angel allowed himself a brief moment of satisfaction as the demon's decapitated head fell to the ground with a thud and rolled away, its body soon following suit.

He turned to Demon Number 2 just in time to see the ashen creature look from Faith, to the vampire, to his deceased allies before making a run for it. Angel frowned, _Now that's just giving demons a bad name_.

The vampire paused before quickly putting away his sword and rushing to Faith's side, instinctively reaching for her neck. He let out a sigh of relief as he felt a steady pulse against his fingers. Angel hurriedly scanned her for any injuries finding only two, a deep gash on her forehead that must have been the cause of her knockout and her hand which was covered in blood. Now he just had to figure out what to do.

If he left her here then it would be nothing short of death sentence, what with all of Sunnydale's wonderful nightlife. On the other hand he could take her back to his place and once again try and set 

her on the right path. After a moment's hesitation Angel scooped Faith up into his arms – the slayer letting out a soft moan but otherwise remaining quiet – and walked off, hoping to god that Buffy and Faith wouldn't stake him for this.

_What do yah think?_


	2. Dream, nightmare or reality?

A/N: So sorry I haven't updated, I've been real busy and I've got another story I'm writing too.

_**They say dreams are the windows of the soul--take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts.**_

**Henry Bromel**

_Faith frowned in confusion as she walked down a hallway so bare that she thought for a second that she was back in the hospital. A thought that was shattered when she realized that she'd never actually seen a hospital with brown walls and a wooden door that looked as though it had seen better days. Much better days._

_Her frown deepened as she neared it, a feeling of familiarity washing over her. Faith reached for the doorknob and turned, the sound echoing throughout that hall like a cat being tortured by hot pokers. She winced, expecting someone to jump out and yell at her for the disturbance. No-one came and after a pause she thought it safe to enter the room._

_Faith gasped as she stepped in, instantly recognising the room's – or should she say her room's – appearance. It looked exactly the same as when she had left it in Boston, cheap dresser in the corner and an even cheaper bed nearby. Her room to a T, well, unless you count the dead body on the bed. That certainly wasn't there before._

_She nearly jumped in surprise when she saw it before moving a little closer. The body was facing away from her so she couldn't exactly make out who it was but it was definitely a guy. As she reached the bed Faith held out a hesitant hand, with all the intention to turn the body over to face her. But before she could even touch it, the mattress gave a squeak as the body turned at an almost impossible speed and faced her. _

"_Why?" he asked, glazed over eyes staring up at her unseeingly as blood dripped from his mouth along with the wound on his chest._

_The brunette's eyes widened in horror as she found herself gazing into the eyes of the dead deputy mayor. She bit down on her lip so hard to stop the scream from escaping her lips that she tasted the metallic flavour of blood. She back-stepped hurriedly turning around to face the doorway only to bump into the second man she'd killed. The professor. _

"_Why Faith?" _

With a gasp Faith's eyes snapped open and she found herself yet again in a familiar-yet-not-so-familiar place. She inwardly groaned as she noticed the iron shackles clasping her wrists and half-heartedly tried to break them. Close, but no cigar. She sighed and leaned back against the wall in defeat-but-not-really-defeat-cause-she-could-never-be-defeated.

Now where was that wonderful vampire she loved to hate? She needn't have bothered looking for just then he entered the room, ignoring her as he did so. OK, that made her pissed, well more than she already was anyhow.

"What am I doing here?" She demanded, glaring daggers at him.

Angel remained calm. "You were knocked unconscious by a couple of demons. If I left you there in the alley it would have been a death sentence."

"So? Isn't that what you and Scoobies want? To be rid of me." She spat.

The vampire crouched down in front of her, his eyes staring intently into her own. "None of us want you dead, Faith."

The brunette snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, I'm sure you all wanna be my bestest buds."

"That's not what I said, Faith," he told her, voice still annoyingly calm. "I said 'none of us want you dead', that in no way means we don't all have grudges against you."

"Who doesn't?" she asked with a smirk.

Angel smiled; it was a response that anyone would expect from Faith. "Oh, I'm sure there's someone out there."

Faith rolled her eyes and looked down at her chains with a raised eyebrow. "You know, if you wanted me tied up all you had to do was ask."

"I don't doubt it."

She had to resist the extremely childish notion to stick out her tongue at him and instead once again raised an eyebrow. He said nothing more and neither did she. After a while her nails began to look kinda interesting – well, more interesting than a soulful-vampire at any rate – and started studying them to pass the time. What she wouldn't give for a comic book right about now...

A cross and holy water might come in handy too.

"Why'd you do it, Faith, why'd you save her?" he asked after the long stretch of silence seemed to have carried on far too, well, long. There was no need to ask who 'her' was.

"You know, I seem to remember going over this already."

"You gave me one reason, now what's the other?"

Faith smiled innocently (if such a thing could be said about her). "What can I say? I was in a giving mood."

Angel shook his head with a slight chuckle. "You can play bad girl all you want, Faith, but at the end of the day you're just a child playing dress-ups," he told her, receiving a sharp scowl. "Only thing with costumes is: you wear them long enough and it gets hard to decipher who's really underneath it all . . . You're human, Faith, which means you have the weaknesses of a human. Pain, hurt, jealousy, hate-"

"Let's just get onto the seven deadly sins while we're at it," Faith interrupted with a smirk.

He ignored her, his voice growing firmer. "Love and guilt."

She pouted and gave a mock salute. "Gottta believe you on that one, Sir," she said, her voice thick with sarcasm.

"It made you feel like a god didn't it?" he continued, apparently oblivious to her earlier comment. "Knowing that you had control over someone's life, that you could decide whether they lived or died. And that's what you want isn't it? Control. Power. We all want it, Faith, and it's pretty much the definition of being a god . . . But guess what? Humans were never designed for god's work." Faith didn't say anything, her eyes staring fixedly at the opposite wall as she tried to block his words out. Angel didn't seem to mind as he got to his feet. "Pretty soon, all that pain, all that suffering you've caused, is going come back to haunt you. And when it does, it'll destroy you."

"And why's that? 'Cause I'm human and I have a soul?" the brunette snorted in disbelief. "That doesn't mean a thing. I've seen people that haven't felt a shred of guilt over what they've done. So tell me, why should I be any different?"

"Because you care," that was all he said before he walked off. And deep down he knew it was true, because people who didn't care wouldn't care if a girl was killed by a vampire. Faith had. And as long as you cared about something like that then you had the ability to be redeemed.

...

"Private Harris, reporting for donut duty," Xander announced entering the mansion.

Faith swung her head around to look at him, a mixture of confusion and shock playing across her face. She couldn't have been more surprised if a bunch of hyenas had just walked in. Xander on the other hand didn't seem the least bit startled by her presence and waltzed casually towards her, taking a stand beside Angel, a pink box in his hands.

"What the hell are you doing here, X-Man?" she asked, trying to sound unbothered by his presence.

"Deadboy rang me up, asking for help. As it turns out he doesn't have a single thing in this place to feed a ravenous slayer. So, me being the great humanitarian I am, brought donuts," he replied, holding up the box of donuts with a smile.

The brunette stared at him, unsure of how take all this in. In fact, she was beginning to think she was still dreaming and although she thought she was awake she really wasn't. That, or Xander had some wicked case of amnesia. Either way, she was having a really weird night.

Xander smiled down at her and Faith's thoughts instantly flashed to the night he had come to help her (or so he said) after she'd killed the Deputy Mayor. She'd strangled him almost to death right after she'd humiliated him. Where were the barbed comments? The steely glares? Why the fuck was he just smiling at her?

It seemed wrong to her that he shouldn't show any anger, any signs of a grudge. And somehow it hurt more than any rage could have because it either meant that she didn't matter enough to be 

angry at or he'd been telling the truth before she'd strangled him. That he cared about her and that was why he was showing her this warmth that deep down she knew she didn't deserve, couldn't understand. Then again, there was also the fact that rage she was used to, rage she fed off, right alongside pain. To her the line between affection and malice was so thin it was almost invisible to the eye. Even so she knew which one she'd suffered from most in her life.

Faith didn't care about what she'd done to him, about anything she'd done. And it was that exact line that she kept telling herself over and over again, and it was that exact line that seemed to exist only to show its flaws.

"Thanks for that," Angel said, his voice breaking her out of her thoughts as he glanced cautiously between her and Xander.

Xander waved the comment away, still smiling. "Hey, no problem, I'm donut guy after all." He turned away from the vampire to face Faith and held out the box for her to grab. "Here."

After a hesitant pause the brunette reached out her hand to grab the offered object frowning when he swung it out of her reach.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," he apologized before holding out the box again.

Once again Faith grabbed for it and once again Xander mercilessly tore out of her reach. This continued a few more times before Angel decided to intervene, seeing the anger building up in the slayer's eyes.

"Xander, word of advice: never taunt a slayer, especially when they're in a bad mood," he said before walking off.

She quirked an eyebrow at the Scoobie who laughed nervously at the meaning of the vampire's words.

"Donut?" he asked holding out the box.

Faith's eyes brows nearly reached her hairline before she finally reached out towards the open box and took a jelly donut.

...

Xander slowly exited the mansion so he could talk to Angel out of Faith's hearing range. God that girl had an appetite the box was empty before he even had a chance to snag one for himself. Catching sight of the vampire he made a mental note to bring three boxes next time.

"Thanks for doing this, Xander," Angel greeted as the boy took a stand beside him.

"Hey, vampire rings me up on the phone and asks me to rehabilitate a rouge slayer who wouldn't hesitate to kill me in the slightest, what was I supposed to do?" There was a pause in which he contemplated his own words. "So, OK, run, hide and never come out kinda comes to mind. Maybe throw in a few strippers and it'd be flawless. But I care about Faith and I'll do whatever I can to help her. I still don't get why you wanted me for this though."

"For exactly that reason, Xander. Out of everyone you're probably the only one who tried the hardest to help her. You're the most likely person she's going to trust, and without that it'll be a whole lot harder to help her, if at all possible. Faith needs to know she has another choice, she cares, Xander, about everything, she just needs to admit it to herself. And that's what you're gonna help her do. I can't think of any other way to save her without you, Xander. "

Xander raised his eyebrows at the vampire. "But no pressure."

Angel chuckled at that. "It's going to be a lot of hard word, are you up for it?"

"Yep." Xander suddenly frowned. "I'm gonna regret this later I just know it."

"You probably will," he said with a grin.

There was a pause in which Xander suddenly turned serious.

"Do you really think she has a chance?"

Angel sighed, suddenly looking very much his age. "I won't lie to you, Xander. The road to redemption is a rocky path, and you have to want it to take it. And she's got almost no reason to do so, everything she needs is on the other side. Love, fun, comfort, respect, trust. She's needed on the other side, Xander, like she never was here. She's _wanted_, and I think that means more to her than anything else in the world."

"How can you be so sure the mayor wants her?" Xander asked suspiciously. "I mean, other than to chop the lot of us up into itty bitty pieces."

"You look hard enough and you can see it in the way he looks at her, he cares about her like a father."

He nodded, finding that slightly creepy. "So we have to make her want this side. To make her feel wanted on this side."

"That, and we have to make her realize what she's done. Faith's in denial, Xander, anyone who truly looks for it can see it. She's not allowing herself to realize what she done because she knows she won't be able to handle it if she does." Angel paused, giving it time to sink in before continuing. "Now, we better go tell Buffy and the others what's going on."

Xander glanced back at the mansion. "You sure it's OK to leave her alone in there?"

"She can't get out of those chains and we won't be gone for long," the vampire replied. In truth he was more worried about any company that might find Faith – to hurt her or to free her than her being alone.

Xander nodded.

"Right, I told the others to meet us in the library in about twenty minutes . . . let's go break the news, and hope Buffy doesn't kill us for it," Angel said as the two headed off. There was about three minutes of silence before his mind floated back to something the boy had said earlier. "Strippers?"

"Hey, I'm a man, I have manly needs," Xander replied defensively


End file.
